Montana Republicans are appealing to anti-California sentiment to pass a slew of bipartisan pro-housing policies

• Montana Republicans are aligned behind zoning reform and other pro-housing policies.
• Montana's facing a housing shortage and affordability crisis and is passing a slew of bills to fight it.

The deep red state of Montana is full of Republican YIMBYs, and they're using the time-honored bipartisan tradition of mocking California to alleviate their state's housing affordability crisis.

Montana's state legislature is on the verge of passing a slew of bills championed by Republicans that will loosen zoning laws and make it much easier to build new housing and increase urban density.

Senate Bill 245 will allow multi-family housing and mixed-use development in urban commercial zones that previously only allowed office and retail space and parking. Senate Bill 323 will allow duplexes to be built in cities. And SB 406 will prevent local authorities from creating stricter zoning laws than the state's.

Perhaps the most far-reaching is Senate Bill 382, which will require cities to create land-use plans for future population growth and allocate space for more housing. Another bill legalizing the construction of accessory dwelling units — a secondary unit on a lot with a primary home — SB 528, is also expected to get final approval. The bills are all set to hit the governor's desk in the next week.

This "Yes In My Backyard" approach to development is rare among conservatives nationally, as they often support protecting suburbs from increasing density and other anti-building stances. The housing policies are supported by a broad coalition across the political spectrum, including progressive groups and right-leaning free market organizations. All of the zoning bills awaiting final approval won huge majorities in the legislature — SB 245 passed the state House on Wednesday 97-3.

Like many other states across the country, Montana is suffering from a severe housing shortage that has driven up home prices and rents and made living in cities unaffordable for many. Home prices in the state have almost doubled in the last five years, according to Zillow, driven in part by a big influx of new residents.

"Montana has been discovered, really, in the last couple of years," Kendall Cotton, who leads the free-market pro-housing think tank the Frontier Institute, told Insider. "There's so many people moving here now. And everybody in Montana is asking this question of, you know, how can we keep Montana feeling like Montana?"

But unlike most red states and communities, political leaders are addressing the affordability crisis and the threat of urban sprawl.

Preventing a 'California-style housing crisis'

Montana's ultra-conservative GOP governor, Greg Gianforte, recently called the housing crisis "probably the number one issue faced by working Montanans."

Last summer, the governor created a bipartisan housing task force to recommend pro-housing policies.

And this year, Gianforte's proposed budget included $200 million for investments in infrastructure, including water and sewer lines and streets, to support housing. Lawmakers earlier this month voted down the initial version of the Home Ownership Means Economic Security (HOMES), which contained the infrastructure funding, but some amount of funding is expected to be approved.

Nathan Dugan, the co-founder of a pro-housing group in Whitefish, a town in Northwest Montana near Glacier National Park, who was appointed to Gianforte's housing task force, said the governor's efforts have helped the legislature embrace a pro-housing agenda.

"That definitely helped set the stage for the legislative session, and it's helped us to be successful in getting a lot of this pro-housing stuff passed, even if the governor hasn't been super involved himself during the session," Dugan told Insider.

Part of what sets Montana apart when it comes to housing policy, activists say, is that it doesn't yet have the kind of suburban and ex-urban development many other states do. Montanans generally appreciate the state's vast open spaces and public lands, and want to protect them. So the obvious solution is boosting density in cities.

Conservative supporters of pro-housing policies in the state have successfully tied anti-California sentiment to anti-sprawl and pro-housing policies.

"The fear is that in 25 years, we're going to have a California-style housing crisis," Cotton said. "We're going to have miles of urban sprawl eating up all of the Montana areas that we love, and changing the character of our state."

"The zoning maps of Montana cities — like Missoula and Bozeman — that are quickly growing, look eerily similar to the zoning map of LA," said Cotton, who's also a member of the housing task force.

Advocates have also emphasized property rights, framing restrictive zoning laws as encroaching on landowners' freedoms.

Gianforte has already embraced new housing density in his neighborhood.

"I was at a reception at the governor's house a few weeks ago and when I pulled up, I noticed that literally directly across the street here in Helena was a a triplex," Cotton said. "I asked the governor about it and he said, 'Oh, yeah, it's no big deal.'"

The debate has also struck an emotional chord with lawmakers. In one viral moment, Republican State Sen. Daniel Zolnikov, who introduced SB 245, spoke about the many Montanans struggling to afford adequate housing.

"Housing prices are going up because there's so little supply, so people say this could affect a neighborhood," he said on the House floor last month. "Honestly, I don't care. Because people are living in campers in Bozeman in negative-20-degree weather. People are trying to squeeze three kids into one bedroom to make their two-bedroom work. That's happening."